The Clay Pigeon is directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Carl Foreman. It stars Bill Williams, Barbara Hale, Richard Quine and Richard Loo.
In the late 40s, director Richard Fleischer was given the opportunity to direct a series of "B-list" film noirs including The Clay Pigeon. Typically a picture such as this, which only ran little more than an hour, was placed on the "undercard" of a double bill.
This is a hot one. It is brilliantly written by Carl Foreman and directed by Dick Fleischer, a potent pair of talents.
Starts off well as amnesiac vet (Williams) is chased by mysterious forces including not so mysterious Naval Intelligence. Now he's got to unravel the puzzle before it catches up to him.
When the Navy sailor Jim Fletcher (Bill Williams) awakes from a two-year coma in a hospital in San Diego, he overhears a conversation of his doctor and his nurse and learns that he will face a court martial, accused of treason for snitching fellow POWs that were stealing food in a Japanese camp in World War II. He decides to flee from the hospital and seek out his friend Mark Gregory to help him to clear his name.
When Bill Williams comes out of a coma at a Naval hospital in Long Beach, he knows who he is but doesn't know why he's there. But he overhears staff talking about his impending court-martial for treason: Apparently he snitched on his fellow Americans in a Japanese prison-camp, leading to their deaths by torture.
Richard Fleischer who would direct "Barabbas" "fantastic voyage" and "the Boston strangler,not exactly low budget efforts already proves with "clay pigeon" he was a great director from the start.One has sometimes the strange impression to watch a "Mandchurian candidate" in miniature .
I get what the other reviewer is saying here about "too many plot devices" but that only really bothers me now that I sit and think about it. The movie itself moved along quick.
Bill Williams was a reliable actor who specialised in "nice guy" roles. His main claim to fame was his marriage to Barbara Hale (TV's Della Street) and after their marriage they were paired in films like "A Likely Story" and "The Clay Pigeon".
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